“Wakey wakey, Cedric.”

Cedric’s mind slowly drifted into lucidity - called forth into a rough approximation of consciousness by the sound of Dyllan’s voice. Last thing he remembered was finishing a speech of sorts, now he was face down in a pile of rubble. Was being spontaneously ejected from someone’s Nightmare - or in this case, Dream - always this disorienting? If so, he owed Dyllan an apology.

“I take it things went well?”

“Probably?” Cedric picked himself up off the ground, and dusted off the… Well, the dust. “You’ll have to ask Andie to know for sure.”

“He was asking me.” Andie’s voice came from beside Cedric. He turned to face the source, only to find the girl in question mere inches from his face.

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“Fuck!” Cedric stumbled backward and nearly fell flat on his ass. It wasn’t often he lost his composure, and it was even less often he lost it loudly. “Andie, you can’t just sneak up on a guy like that.”

“I think you mean shouldn’t.” Andie’s favorite shit-eating grin spread out across her face. “I just proved quite decidedly that I can.”

“Pedantry is my wheelhouse, Andrea.” Cedric spoke with a satirical intensity. “Don’t start fights you can’t win.”

“Focus, people.” Dyllan spoke calmly, but without patience. “Andie, what’s your status.”

“Well, Cedric’s little lecture definitely made me rethink some things.” Andie fidgeted slightly as she spoke. She was only slightly more comfortable being vulnerable than Cedric was, though she was loathe to admit it. “I didn’t agree with all of it, and, frankly, a bit of it just sounded like sour grapes to me…” Cedric opened his mouth to interrupt, but stopped short, deciding to let Andie finish before objecting. “…but honestly, those sour grapes kind of just prove the point that I think Cedric was trying to make.”